Oct 11, 2004

Getting Stoned

While staying in the UK, I woke at around 4am with a throbbing pain in my lower back. Initially I thought it might have been indigestion or a strained muscle, but when the pain became unbearable, I dragged myself out of bed and drove to the hospital. In the car, I started taking heaving breaths to calm myself, wondering whether this was anything like the pain that women feel during childbirth. 15 minutes later, I was at the emergency ward, and after a few endless minutes of check in, a Doctor diagnosed me as having either pancreatitis or a kidney stone. To ease the pain, I was given two shots of Morphine and an IV, at which point I became comfortably numb. The nurses took a couple of blood samples and an X-ray, and then I was taken in a wheelchair into a regular ward bed. Unfortunately, the blood samples got lost so I had to have them taken a few hours later. Finally, I drifted off to sleep, and when I awoke, the pain had completely gone. After a couple more X-rays, this time taken after I was pumped full of a trace chemical, I was diagnosed with having passed a small kidney stone, perhaps 1-2 millimeters around. I've since learnt that a kidney stone is one of the most painful experiences anyone can have, even more so than childbirth or a gunshot wound. I'll certainly attest to that. I thank my lucky stars that I had this incident in the UK with the help of the National Health, rather than on board a plane over the Atlantic. And apparently the most likely reason that I had a stone in the first place is due to my coffee intake. Drats!

Last night I was watching the HBO show Deadwood. One of the bad guys had to pass a kidney stone. The show takes place in the 1870s and therefore there was no happy juice for him to take. Thank God we have good drugs and good doctors in this day and age!